Christmas
by Run Bad Wolf
Summary: Remus and Tonks celebrate their first Christmas together !


**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

**Thanks to _remusdora_ who gave me the inspiration!**

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"What about this one?" Remus asked, exasperated. His wife scrutinized the tree, before shaking her head.

"No. Not that one," Dora replied. He rolled his eyes. They had been Christmas tree shopping for hours now, and he was freezing. He supposed that was why she was wearing so many layers; he should have known she'd take forever to pick a tree.

"Come on, Dora," he protested. "Just pick a tree already."

"I will not 'just pick a tree', Remus," she frowned. "It's our first Christmas together. It has to be just right. It's needs to be special."

He bit his lip, unconvinced. She pouted and bounded over to him, promptly falling flat on her face.

"I'm fine, no worries. Perfectly fine," she said, springing to her feet again.

"Of course you are," he said, almost doubled over with laughter. "But, okay, got it. Just right and special."

He turned away from her to look at another tree.** THUD**. A large ball of snow collided with the back of his head and slid down his neck. He whirled back around.

"That was for laughing," Tonks smirked, rolling another snowball.

"If you want a fight, I'll give you a fight," he called, taking shelter behind a large pine tree. "But you should be warned; I grew up with James and Sirius. You can't win."

"Sure, whatever you say," she laughed. He weighed up his options while he made himself a snowball. He could throw his snowball first or wait for her to strike and then retaliate. While he thought, she stepped into his line of fire and he made his mind up. **THUD**. It hit her smack in the face.

"GOAL!" he cheered, throwing his hands in the air. She pouted at him for a moment, before she launched her own snowball at him. It missed wildly, but provided enough of a distraction for her to disappear.

"Damn," he muttered. He had to admit, she was good. Not good enough to beat him, but still good. "Come on, Dora. I thought you wanted to pick a tree, not pick a fight."

"I did, but this is way more fun," she giggled. It came from the left and slightly behind him. He spun around, but she was nowhere to be seen. He rotated slowly on the spot, looking everywhere. Suddenly, he heard footsteps behind him. Before he could do anything, his wife jumped onto his back, giggling.

"I think I win," she teased, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"It pains me to say it, but I think you did too," he nodded. She jumped back down and turned to look at her. She was covered in snow; her dark purple hat and scarf were now speckled white, as was her black trench coat. He would have laughed, if he hadn't remember that he probably looked the same - if not worse.

"Come on," Tonks said, grabbing his hand and pulling him off. "We still need a tree."

The couple stood side by side, hand in hand, looking up at the tree. It was the perfect shape and perfect height for their small living room. The only issue now was actually buying it.

"Which one is this? A five?" Remus asked, holding up the note for his wife to see.

"No, that one's a ten," replied Dora, pointing to the little number. "Anyway, I thought your mum was a muggle. You should be good at this."

"Nope," he smirked. "Besides, your dad is muggleborn. Did he not teach you this stuff?"

"Good point," she conceded, counting the notes again. "There, £45. How many galleons is that?"

"9, I think. I always forget the exchange rate," her husband replied.

Between them, they managed to carry the tree back to their car and to squeeze it into the (magically enlarged) boot.

"Now we need decorations!" Tonks said brightly.

"We've been shopping for hours, Dora," Remus groaned. "Can't we go home and buy decorations tomorrow?"

His wife stared at him as if she'd never seen him before.

"No! Don't be so ridiculous," she cried.

"Are you sure you should be on your feet all day in your condition?" he asked.

"I'm pregnant, not dying," she protested. "Anyway, you weren't so bothered when you were throwing snowballs at me."

Sighing, he realised she'd won. A sudden thought occurred to him as he started the car.

"Where do you even buy Christmas decorations?" His wife opened her mouth, before closing it a second later.

"I have no idea," she admitted eventually. "We've had the same ones for as long as I can remember. Mum just fixed the ones I broke..."

"Which was probably all of them at some point, knowing you," teased Remus. "Well then, we'll just have to improvised!"

At the next petrol station, Remus pulled in, took out his money bag and counted the remaining notes.

"£55. We should be able to get some decent decorations for that," he told her.

"Not from here. Now way. We need proper ones, not cheap, tacky ones from a petrol station," she rolled her eyes at Remus face. Exasperated, he started the car; he knew better than to argue.

Soon, they were walking through the doors of a large muggle supermarket. Predictably, it was packed with people doing their Christmas shopping. Tonks looped her arm through Remus' so she didn't lose him in the crowd and dragged him off to look at decorations.

"What about these?" Remus teased, holding up a box of bright pink baubles. "They match your hair."

"Remus, everything matches my hair," she laughed, running a hand through her spiky pink hair.

"Good point," he conceded, putting the baubles back. "What do you think of these?"

"Yeah, I like these," Dora said, taking the dark blue and purple baubles. "What about tinsel?"

Remus pointed down the aisle and she skipped off. Almost immediately, she tripped over her own feet.

"I'm fine, perfectly fine."

"You," he laughed, going over. "Are a danger to yourself and everyone around you."

"Shut up," she blushed. "Tinsel. Come on."

Half an hour later, the two of them joined the queue at the checkout behind an elderly woman. They'd finally settled on the blue and purple baubles, matching tinsel and a wreath for their apartment door. The woman in front was staring at Tonks' hair in disbelief.

"I think she disagrees with you hair colour," Remus chuckled.

"Nah, she's just wondering how I got it so spiky," she replied, stifling a giggle.

"I don't think that's it, Nymphadora."

"I could always change it," she said innocently. "And don't call me that!"

The woman finally paid for her items and shuffled off.

"Young hoodlums with their funny hair and strange nicknames," she muttered, glancing back at Tonks suspiciously.

"I wish it was a nickname," Tonks said crossly as her husband laughed.

"Okay, that's £34.87, please," the cashier smiled.

"Oh help," Remus groaned. "£10, 20, 30-"

"No, that's a 20," Tonks took the notes off him. "£10, 30, 35. There you go."

The cashier stared at them, but mercifully stayed silent.

"That could have gone much worse," Tonks smirked, as they put the bags in the boot with the tree. Remus laughed, nodding.

"Remind me again," Remus grunted. "Why we have to do this the entirely none magical way?"

"Because the neighbours already think we're weird. I think they'll be really suspicious if we had a levitating tree," Tonks said. She was a few steps above him on the narrow staircase; she was pulling the tree while he pushed. When he opened his mouth again, she added "They also might ask questions if it appeared to be weightless. Beside, I didn't know the lift would have broken and we'd have to carry it up 5 flights of stairs."

There were pine needles all up the stair by the time they got it though the door, but the tree itself was relatively undamaged. They stood it in the corner and stepped back to admire their handiwork.

"Now we just need to decorate it!" Tonks said brightly. Remus laughed at her child-like enthusiasm, but grabbed a box of baubles. After a couple of minutes of trying to open the plastic box by hand, he pulled out his wand and magicked it open.

"How on earth do muggles manage to get into things like this?" he cried, frustrated.

"No idea," Dora replied. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor, trying to tie thread loops to hang the baubles with. She pulled out her own wand and flicked it, causing the thread to tangle itself into a knot. "Damn."

"Nice. Really, well done. I think you've outdone yourself this time, Dora," he snorted. He took the knotted thread from her and began to undo it. She pouted.

"Shush you. Do you want a mug of tea?" she asked, standing up and going into the kitchen.

"Yes, please," he called after her.

By the time she returned, carrying two mugs of tea and a plate of biscuit on a tray, he'd undone her knot and was now hanging baubles on the tree. She put the tray on the coffee table and joined him.

"I think it looks wonderful," Remus announced, 15 minutes later. As well as hanging the baubles on the tree, they'd hung half the tinsel around it and the other half across the mantle piece. Remus had conjured up some fairy lights and had draped them around the doorway.

"So do I," Tonks grinned.

"Remus. Remus. _Remus_! Wake up!" Tonks hissed. "Come on, it's Christmas!"

"Are you four or twenty four?" he groaned, rolling over to face her. "Merry Christmas, Dora."

"Merry Christmas to you too," she smiled, kissing him.

"What time is it?" he said groggily.

"Half past eight, sleepy head. Stop moaning," she told him, getting up. He rolled his eyes behind her back, but followed. When he went into the living room, his eyes were immediately drawn to the pile of presents under the tree. Smiling, he turned back around and went into their spare (soon to be the baby's) room. He opened the door to the wardrobe and took the small pile of presents from the top shelf. He was quite proud of his hiding place - his inquisitive wife was too short to see them and he knew she hating messing with her height. When he returned to the living room it was to see Tonks curled up on the sofa. Sitting down next to her, he handed her a small, square box wrapped in sliver wrapping paper. She slipped her hand under the tape and tugged, revealing a black jewellery box. She opened it and found a slim, sliver bracelet with a little wolf charm hanging off it.

"It's beautiful, Remus! I love it," she gasped. "Okay, your turn."

He laughed, taking the large rectangular package from her. It was wrapped in the same silver paper he had used. He tore it off, finding a box of Weasleys' Wildfire Whizz-Bangs inside.

"I asked Fred and George which ones you'd like best, but I got a sneaky feeling they just sold me the loudest and the most disruptive instead," she told him.

"Well, that's also what I like, so they weren't wrong really," he teased. "Okay, open... this one!"

She took the squishy present curiously. Upon opening it, she found a green and gold scarf, with Holyhead Harpies stitched onto it.

"Thank you!" she cried, wrapping it around her neck immediately. "Um... this one next!"

He took the long, slim tube and pulled off the wrapping paper.

"Every Flavour Beans! Thanks, Dora!" he exclaimed, opening the tube. He poured a few onto his palm. After examining then all closely, he selected a bright red one.

"I don't know why you like them so much. I only ever get the horrible ones," she said as he popped the bean in his mouth.

"Strawberry," he grinned. "Good. It's far too early for the horrible ones."

"Early! It's 11 o'clock!" she snorted, then stopped suddenly. "Oh crap. We are going to be so late for Mum!"

She jumped up and ran out of the room and he followed shortly.

"Ready?" he asked, a few minutes later, holding out his arm. Nodding, she looped her own through it. He spun on the spot and they apparated to just outside a snowy village in Yorkshire. Linking hands, they walked down the lane towards a small cottage on the outskirts. Tonks pushed open the gate and together they walked up the path. Remus raised his hand to knock on the door when it was flung open.

"Oh thank goodness," a tall woman with long, light brown hair exclaimed. "I was beginning to worry."

"You always worry, Mum," Tonks joked. "Merry Christmas!"

"You too, Nymphadora," her mother smiled, hugging her tight. "Merry Christmas, Remus."

"Merry Christmas, Andromeda," he replied. She motioned for them to come in and shut the door behind them.

"Have you heard from Dad?" Tonks asked. Andromeda shook her head.

"He'll be fine, he can look after himself," she added quickly, seeing her daughter's face.

"It smells great, Andie," Remus complimented, swiftly changing the subject.

"Thanks," she smiled gratefully. She turned and went back into the kitchen, the couple following after her. The small table was set, complete with several wizards crackers. There were knives chopping vegetables on the sideboard and a pan of gravy bubbling away on the stove. Andromeda flicked her wand causing the vegetables to drop themselves into another pan.

"Can I help?" Dora asked eagerly. Her mother eyed her apprehensively.

"No, sweetie, it's fine. You sit down," she said eventually. Remus stifled a laugh; Andromeda probably knew better than anyone the danger of putting her clumsy daughter in charge of sharp knives.

"You're getting as bad as Remus," Tonks pouted. "Always fussing."

"Oh, I'm sorry if I want to look after my grandchild," Andie teased. "Have you thought of names yet?"

"We're still undecided," Remus told her, sitting next to his wife. "We thought about Edward, or Teddy for short, after Ted."

"We also considered Sirius," Dora chipped in. "But as most of the wizarding world thinks he was a crazy mass murderer, we didn't think that was a particularly brilliant decision."

"No, perhaps not," Andie laughed. As they had talked, she's put food on the plates. "What if it's a girl?"

"Hope," Dora supplied. "After Remus's mother."

"It's beautiful," Andromeda said.

It was several hours before Remus and Tonks had to leave.

"Bye Mum, Tonks said, hugging her mother again. "Thank you."

"Thanks for everything, Andie," Remus agreed.

"It was nothing, really. You two be careful, look after each other," she said softly, opening the front door.

"We'll be fine, Mum. I'll speak to you later," her daughter replied, stepping outside.

"Yeah, I know," she smiled. She watched as the couple walked down the garden and out of sight before she closed the door.

The two walked back down the lane out of the village. Once again, Remus offered his wife an arm. She ignored him, looking up into the tree above instead.

"Mistletoe," she pointed out. He looked up as well. She was right. For some reason, he couldn't imagine what, someone had hung mistletoes from the tree.

"You know what this means, don't you?" he murmured bending down to kiss her, wrapping his arms around her. She stood up on tiptoe, deepening the kiss, and slipped her arms around his neck.

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**I know it's a really rubbish ending but I had this beautiful scene in my head and I couldn't get it onto paper! Suggested improvements are therefore much appreciated, as are reviews!**


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